Schools tracking students’ online activities for ‘suicide prevention’
December 27, 2016
By Victor Skinner
LOS ANGELES – School officials and technology companies are touting the benefits of electronic eavesdropping on students as a means of preventing teen suicides, but privacy rights experts are ringing the alarms.
Ken Yeh, a technology director at a private Los Angles school, recently detailed for National Public Radio how administrators who doled out Chromebook laptops to students are tracking their browsing and search histories using software designed to block out porn and other internet sites.studentcomputers
Yeh explained that GoGuardian software installed on the computers alerts school IT professionals when students search for suicide-related terms or visit websites about self-harm. The function allows school officials to intervene when a student is struggling and offer counseling or alert parents, a situation that’s played out at least four times at Yeh’s school in as many years.
http://eagnews.org/schools-tracking-students-online-activities-for-suicide-prevention/